


Accept All Substitutes

by misura



Category: Chuck (TV)
Genre: M/M, Stanford Era, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-22
Updated: 2011-04-22
Packaged: 2017-11-02 21:32:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/373561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>A lot of guys Bryce's age seem to be jerks.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Accept All Substitutes

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: _Bryce/Chuck, longing_
> 
> no idea whose or where, though *cough*

Whenever the _wanting_ gets too much, Bryce finds a girlfriend.

It's easier, less messy (he tells himself); Chuck doesn't like guys that way (Bryce values their friendship); he needs to practice his seduction techniques (he's going to be a spy).

 

"You've got pretty eyes," he tells the third-year who's doing Track - her last boyfriend dumped her after she switched from glasses to contacts, which is a totally dumb reason to dump anyone anyway. Bryce doesn't feel bad thinking of Chuck's eyes when he says it; hearing the words clearly makes her happy, so where's the harm?

He's just the rebound guy - he breaks up with her when Chuck joins the movie club (they meet on Wednesdays, which Bryce has marked on his calendar as 'date night'), claiming he wants to focus on his studies for a while, with exams coming up.

 

"I love your smile," he tells the junior whose not-to-secret ambition is to make cold fusion work. She's got this barely noticeable lisp nobody seemed to find worth commenting on until her former boyfriend drew everyone's attention to it. (A lot of guys Bryce's age seem to be jerks.)

Chuck smiles easily and often and yet never quite often enough for Bryce to get used to it.

(She leaves for Europe two months later and sends him a postcard from Paris, to thank him for being 'the only person I'm going to miss', making Bryce remember that he never did introduce her to Chuck.)

 

"I don't know how you do it," Chuck says. "Talk to girls, I mean."

Bryce shrugs. Chuck is sprawling on the couch, and Bryce imagines the way he could get up and settle down between Chuck's legs, cover Chuck's body with his own, finally get a taste of Chuck's lips.

"No, really," Chuck says.

"It'll come to you in time," Bryce says. "Don't worry about it."

Chuck scowls and Bryce realizes it doesn't make him feel all that different from the way he feels when Chuck smiles. "Thanks. That's really helpful."

"What else are friends for?" Bryce asks lightly. He desperately needs a new girlfriend, he realizes, to tell her how her lips make him want to kiss her over and over again.


End file.
